Abstract

This lecture examines and classifies “uncivil society” in Europe, that is, a set of associational activities characterized by discursively exclusionist, undemocratic or violent features. With particular reference to organizations connected to the political right, it examines the relation between political systems and civil society, identifying the factors that have made civil society relevant for political actors and pointing to a relation of mutual dependence between the associational world and political movements and parties.

It is argued that membership in uncivil society organizations is an alternative type of political participation which articulates growing anti-political sentiments, and that the emergence of uncivil society activities is rooted in newly relevant conceptions of social and political life which are anti-modern and based on ascriptive criteria of membership. Uncivil society organizations are classified as racist, nationalist and populist, and characterized as biologically essentialist, or territorially or culturally exclusionist.

About the lecturer

Carlo Ruzza is Professor in Sociology at Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, From January 2009, professor of Sociology at the University of Leicester, UK. Ruzza has a M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Recent research focuses on European social movements, and on the cultural implications of the interchange between civil society organizations and decision-makers, particularly at EU level. He also works on other social movements and on right-wing populist parties and movements. He has recently completed two large EU projects. Partner in the EU-projects entitled ‘Civil Society and European Governance’  (CIVGOV) and ‘The European Dilemma: Institutional Patterns and Politics of 'Racial' Discrimination’ for which several publications have also been planned.

Selected publications:

• Ruzza, C., Europe and Civil Society: Movement Coalitions and European Institutions, Manchester University Press 2004. New paperback edition 2006
• Ruzza, C., Della Sala, V., Governance and Civil Society: normative dimensions, Manchester University Press, 2007)
• Ruzza, C., Della Sala, V., Governance and Civil Society: policy perspectives, Manchester University Press, May 2007
• Ruzza, C., Fella, S., Re-Inventing the Italian Right: Populism, Post-Fascism and Territorial Identity, Routledge, 2007